Is it normal that my niece is scared of face paint?

84% Normal
7 Comments

Today my niece, Tia, who is 5, went to a friend's birthday party, and my family and I went too to join in with the little kids' games to entertain them.

The parents of the birthday girl had hired a face paint artist for the party, and everyone was getting their faces painted as a lot of different things. When it was Tia's turn, she asked for penguin face paint, but when the face paint artist started applying it, she didn't like the feeling of the wetness on her face and asked it to be stopped. All was fine, until...

She was suddenly afraid to talk to everyone because of all the new coloured faces the kids had. She felt so uncomfortable that she had to leave the party early in a state. On the way home she said how she hated face paint and was afraid that her friends would be like it forever (don't worry, we told her it would have gone by the time she saw them at school).

I always thought children loved having their faces painted! Is it normal that my niece freaked out having it done? And why was she afraid to look at friends with face paint on? IIN?

Also, at the party I was going to have my face painted just for the hell of it (the little guests would have loved it because they found me quite entertaining when playing the party games) but Tia begged me not to as well... is she afraid that face paint literally changes you?

Voting Results
84% Normal
Based on 77 votes (65 yes)
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Comments ( 7 )
  • Faceless
    13 years ago

    Just as adults, children have their preferences too.

    I always hated getting my face painted as a kid. Just the wetness was uncomfortable and the paint always smelt funny. And half the time youd end up with something completely different then what you told that fucking face painter to paint. Just because they excelled in high school art class and like kids, all of a sudden they think theyre the fuckin Picasso of childrens faces. Fuck them!

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  • underwhere
    13 years ago

    I think this is fairly normal with many kids, but some kids can be especially scared of face paint, particularly if they already have difficulties with identifying others by face. It is possible that your niece has prosopagnosia, and because everybody's face was being painted, she couldn't recognise people anymore. If this is the only example of where she seems to have a difficult time, I would tend to think it unlikely that she has prosopagnosia, but if she also has trouble with Halloween or any special "dress up" days at school, the reason might be that it is harder for her to identify the people she knows once their face changes in this manner. I wouldn't jump to this conclusion right away, but it is worth mentioning the possibility, and examining whether other behaviors of hers might also be explained by such a difficulty.

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  • everyonesbud
    13 years ago

    i wouldn't worry, she's five. even if she grows to adulthood being uneasy of facepaint, i don't think it will effect her life much at all.

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  • [Old Memory]
    13 years ago

    This is actually pretty common, that's why many people are afraid of clowns/mimes/Gene Simmons etc.

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  • ItsMeStella1
    7 years ago

    Very normal. She probably doesn't recognise them. Just like kids who are afraid of clowns, they don't realise that clowns are regular people like Mommy and Daddy

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  • Josie_57
    12 years ago

    i used to be the same when i was a kif. it wasnt the look of it thats scary, but i always thought it wouldnt come off and it would stay like that forever. its perfectly normal i think most kids have a weird phobia of some sort she'll grow out of it :)

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  • kit-kat-bar
    13 years ago

    Just like some kids are afraid of santa, she will get over it!

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